All Forum Posts by: John Newland

It would be prudent to contact an attorney if you are $25,000 in the hole.  Nobody can be sure what provisions were included in your contract, but the seller's breach most likely means your recourse is to decide to pull out of the offer since they default.  All "time is of the essence" basically states is if one party doesn't perform accordingly the other party doesn't need to either. Usually if one party defaults, the other party can sue for damages. With $25,000 in due diligence out of my pocket that may go to waste because the seller decides they won't perform as agreed, I would certainly be on the phone with an attorney to at least get that back.  The seller's position is most likely, "So I didn't give you what you wanted in the time you requested, nor am I going to at all.  Your option is to close or not close."  The seller certainly isn't acting in good faith.  At this point you need to decide what is more important: proceeding with the deal without the information you feel necessary or getting your $25,000 in due diligence back.

Here's a pretty good rule of thumb to go by:

If you agree with the appraisal and it benefits you the appraisal is pretty accurate.

If you disagree with the appraisal and it does not benefit you, the appraiser is wrong and an idiot and the appraisal is garbage.

So what happens when YOUR buyer finds out you are not the owner of a property you are trying to wholesale?  Unless you're closing on your wholesale deals before marketing them, isn't what this seller doing essentially what you'll be doing?  I think you just ran into another wholesaler and tied up their wholesale deal, in which case, if you can make money on the deal and actually perform in accordance with your contract (assuming they can as well), what's the issue?

Would it be possible to obtain your real estate salesperson license, go under a broker's license who would give you the freedom/ability to manage your friend's property under their license as an agent of their brokerage, hold out for two years and get your own broker license?  Some of these places let you hang you license under their brokerage and give you a pretty wide array of freedom for a monthly fee and percentage of your transactional earnings.

Andy, have you considered going hard money? I can recommend a few HMLs and a foundation contractor. The weather is not going to be your friend for concrete work this time of year.

Zipporah,

You'll most likely be overnighting documents to their office. You will probably need to sign the paperwork they send you in the presence of a notary. Either that or you wil need to close the transaction with a local title company that will work with the seller's title agent.

I just did a house with this issue. I had the carpet pulled and the walls and ceiling washed down (the guy used bleach which I questioned but worked great), primed with Cover Stain, and top coated with Behr Ultra paint. It looks fantastic, nothing has bled through and the smell is gone (it went from pet and smoke odor to bleach to oil paint fumes to a freshly painted house in a matter of days.) You can use a Shellac base primer which should encapsulate the staining AND odor (Cover Stain just covers the stain not odor) but you should really wash the walls down with at least a TSP substitute prior to priming and painting to ensure a good bond. Good luck.

I looked into them but did not purchase from them. Doing a few rehabs in the Milwaukee area, I'm sure you are familiar with HOBO. HOBO had a better selection, had features that were an upgrade on the base cabinets from Cabinets to Go (dovetail joints on the drawers) and were a good $700 less not counting the additional 15% off (I had the good fortune to buy while a sale was going on.) Mind you these were the basic cabinets each store offered.

I have heard they are a good value if you go with the higher end stuff they offer, but I did not get the impression they had a lot of selection even on those products, so you are somewhat limited to what they can offer. Perhaps the store I visited was not typical, but for a store that caters to basically cabinets and vanities I felt wanting more choice. By comparison, Home Depot (and HOBO where available) has a myriad of door style, wood, and color choices; albeit a lot of it special order. I'm sure some higher end kitchen and bath outfits can do the same. Only you can be sure what you're looking for, so maybe you'd want to check them out.

Just curious why you thought they were going to mug you? Was this property in a rough area? What did you do when you showed up and saw them?

How many of the buyers requesting interior showings have actually driven past the property? Are you asking them to drive past before setting an appointment to take the time (your time and the tenants) to show them? I cannot believe the amount of feedback surveys I get on my listings (good area or not so good area) where the buyer does not like the area or does not feel the area is a good fit for them.